Influence of confining pressure from 0 to 28 MPa, which acts on the two lateral edges of rock specimen in plane strain compression, on the shear failure processes and patterns as well as on the macroscopically mechanical responses were numerically modeled by use of FLAC. A material imperfection with lower strength in comparison with the intact rock, which is close to the lower-left corner of the specimen, was prescribed. In elastic stage, the adopted constitutive relation of rock was linear elastic; in strain-softening stage, a composite Mohr-Coulomb criterion with tension cut-off and a post-peak linear constitutive relation were adopted. The numerical results show that with an increase of confining pressure the peak strength of axial stress-axial strain curve and the corresponding axial strain linearly increase; the residual strength and the stress drop from the peak strength to the residual strength increase; the failure modes of rock transform form the multiple shear bands close to the loading end of the specimen (confining pressure=0～0.1MPa), to the conjugate shear bands (0.5～2.0 MPa), and then to the single shear band (4～28 MPa). Once the tip of the band reaches the loading end of the specimen, the direction of the band changes so that the reflection of the band occurs. At higher confining pressure, the new-formed shear band does not intersect the imperfection, bringing extreme difficulties in prediction of the failure of rock structure, such as rock burst. The present results enhance the understanding of the shear failure processes and patterns of rock specimen in higher confining pressure and higher loading strain rate.